Talk:The Muppet Show Fan Club
Muppet Labs Mechanized Dentures 250px|right| Anyone know more on this? Were they a real product, or was it a joke ad? -- Zanimum 16:33, December 10, 2009 (UTC) :It's a joke :) —Scott (talk) 18:28, December 10, 2009 (UTC) What happened between the last Newsletter and the first issue of Muppet Magazine? Here's a question for the old-school Fan Club members: what happened between the last issue of the Newsletter and the first issue of Muppet Magazine? Was there a notice sent in the mail announcing the end of the Fan Club and inviting members to subscribe to the magazine, or was the the first issue sent to Fan Club members free, etc.? Also, at least as of 2007, this site seemed to think the Fan Club was still active under the name of "Kermit the Frog and the Muppets Fan Club," with contact info at Disney and everything. However, the number given is for Disneyworld in Florida, and those folks don't seem to know anything about any fan club. So, does anyone know if Disney tried to revive the Fan Club at some point? Potentially interesting info for this article, I think.— Tom (talk) 19:59, December 8, 2009 (UTC) :That's not what they're saying, actually. The *site* is called Kermit the Frog and the Muppets Fan Club (check the home page) and the stuff below is to send fan mail and has nothing whatsoever to do with the old newsletter (whether the site is set up by an actual Disneyland employee who also happens to be a fan, or whether they just stuck that to look official or whathaveyou, since it hasn't been updated in 2007 and includes a link to a now defunct page on Disney's site to send e-mail is unclear; from the look of it, I'd say it's just a fan). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:19, December 8, 2009 (UTC) ::Right, but the contact info gives the name of the club, then somewhere at Disney to send fan mail, so it's certainly misleading. Any info about the first part of the question?— Tom (talk) 20:30, December 8, 2009 (UTC) :::Danny could likely answer that one. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:41, December 8, 2009 (UTC) ::::I'm sorry, I don't remember. I do remember that when Muppet Magazine ended, subscribers were given issues of ALF Magazine, but I don't remember what the transition was between the Fan Club and Muppet Magazine. Maybe somebody else does? -- Danny (talk) 21:09, December 8, 2009 (UTC) Yeah, I dropped a note on Ken's talk page, so perhaps he'll have the answer. It's a fairly minor detail, but the statement that the Fan Club was replaced by Muppet Magazine seemed a little strange, plus I doubt that your $5 got you all those magazines! :)— Tom (talk) 21:13, December 8, 2009 (UTC) :It looks like Danny was the person who added, "In 1983, the Fan Club became defunct and was replaced by Muppet Magazine, a quarterly featuring celebrity interviews by the Muppet characters." I think he meant that it was replaced in the sense that the magazine was the new official publication of the Henson organization, but not that people who had subscribed to the newsletter would begin to get the magazine. :Here's what happened to me. I joined in 1979, so I got all the stuff, and a copy of Vol. 1 No. 1 of the Newsletter, and then it skipped to the then-current issue of Vol. 2 No. 2. I remember getting letters saying it was time to renew, so I did, and I remember when they dropped "Show" from the name and the logo. Then, I remember getting what turned out to be the last newsletter (I still have them all), and then it just kind of stopped. That was around fall 1982, because the front page mentions The Dark Crystal coming in mid-December, and Fraggle Rock coming in January 1983. But then I saw the first issue of Muppet Magazine at a bookstore in the mall, and I couldn't believe it! Going from a four-page black and white newsletter to a full-color real magazine was cool! So I bought it, and I still have all of those, too. I always bought them at the bookstore, because I didn't want them to get mangled in the mail, or have an address label stuck on the front. So I bought them until 1989, when they just kind of stopped, too. (I didn't hear about people getting Alf until I came on to the wiki!) So I guess they just assumed people would go from one to the other, but I don't remember any advertising about it. I think they offered back issues at some point, but I'd have to check in the issues. So anyway, that's what I remember. -- Ken (talk) 04:38, December 9, 2009 (UTC) ::Thanks, Ken. You original Fan Club members are the coolest, in my opinion. I bought my card on Ebay! :) I think Danny originally wrote that the Club was "disbanded" and I changed it to "became defunct," but I see that perhaps a further minor change of wording may be in order, so as not to imply a continuity that probably did not exist.— Tom (talk) 04:54, December 9, 2009 (UTC) :::I changed the wording a bit to reflect the above discussion.— Tom (talk) 00:03, December 10, 2009 (UTC) copyrights how is you publishing all these newslettrs not a copytright violation? wikipedia would never allow this! ive tried uploading single magazine articles there and been shot down. and here are entire publications. aint this breaking the laws??? -- User:13,09,07,12 24 October 2007 :Probably, yeah. It's a complicated question. You're right that Wikipedia wouldn't allow it, but we're not Wikipedia. This is copyrighted material, but so is practically every image on the site. Like every fan site, we sort of dance on the edge of copyright violation, and hope everything turns out okay. So far, it has. -- Danny (talk) 23:22, 24 October 2007 (UTC) ::There's also the fact that this isn't a commercial magazine. It was a fan newsletter, and we're using it as a research tool. So it's not that different from including presskit stuff or other materials intended solely as promotional text (which Wikipedia does allow, by the way). On the other hand, we're not uploading whole articles from Muppet Magazine. As Danny said, we basically use our own discretion, and if any image owners do complain about something, we take it down. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 23:29, 24 October 2007 (UTC) okay. it's just that Muppet Wiki:Image use policy made it seem like there are a lot more rules and quirks that are required for uploading stuff in order to fit the fair use laws and be allowable here. but now i see that the list is just set a rules of thumb, and a lot of those guide aren't really followed real closely all the time here 13,09,07,12 18:35, 2 November 2007 (UTC) Picture thumb|250px Brad edited the picture of the fan club membership kit, taking out the background and replacing it with a shadow. Personally, I prefer the original picture. What do other folks think? -- Danny (talk) 01:39, 7 March 2007 (UTC) :The shadow is a bit weird for me too; I don't love the wood but it doesn't bother me, so I'd pick the original too. -- Wendy (talk) 05:18, 13 March 2007 (UTC) ::Well, that's two of us and nobody else seems to care, so I'm putting the original back for now. If anybody else has comments on it, feel free... -- Danny (talk) 12:33, 13 March 2007 (UTC) :::Sorry, Danny, I've been in the middle of records, and I didn't see this before! I like the wood or desk or whatever it is. It looks more professional to me, like people are looking over the materials in a business meeting or something. -- Ken (talk) 04:31, 15 March 2007 (UTC) :::Actually that "professional" "looking over the materials in a business meeting" photo is actually the papers laid down on my living room floor - Hehe! Warrick 21:16, 19 April 2007 (UTC)